An Open Letter to the Holy Abbots and the Holy Representatives of the Sacred Twenty
Monasteries in the Holy Community of the Holy Mount Athos

This letter is of great importance to the Church of Christ in these terribly difficult
times. With the letter the Athonites are informing us that the time has come to
openly confess our faith in defense of the Doctrine concerning The One, Holy, Catholic,
and Apostolic Church. All Orthodox Christians are responsible for the preservation
and spread of Holy Orthodoxy.

THE TWENTY RULING MONASTERIES of Mount Athos are, in order of precedence, Great
Lavra (the oldest foundation), then Vatopedi, Iviron, Dionysiou, Pantokatoros, Zographos,
Karakallou, Simonos Petras, Stavronikitas, Gregoriou, Penteleimonos, Hilandar, Koutloumousiou,
Xeropotamou, Dochiariou, Philotheou, Agiou Pavlou, Xenophontos, Esphigmenou, Kostamonitou.
Each is a self-governing coenobium, owing allegiance to no ecclesiastical authority.
Even the jurisdiction of the Oecumenical Patriarch is restricted to matters of spirituality.
Of the twenty ruling monasteries, seventeen are Greek, one Serbian, one Russian,
and one Bulgarian. Between them they rule the Mountain through a body called the
Sacred Community.

THE SACRED COMMUNITY is the legislative body of the Holy Mountain and is comprised
of representatives and the superiors of the Holy Mountain’s twenty ruling monasteries.
The Sacred Community convenes in the Karyes and is presided over by the Protos.

KELLIOTES are those monastics who, rather than living in one of the larger monastic
communities (such as a monastery or skete), are blessed to work out their salvation
in small “families” of monastics inhabiting an isolated house called a kelli. Each
kelli is a dependencies of one of the twenty ruling monasteries.

+ + +

December 2006

Holy Abbots and Holy Fathers,

Bless!

We desire with this present letter to express our deepest concern and sadness for
all that is happening to our Holy Orthodoxy for years now: things destructive to
the teaching of the Holy Apostles and of the Holy Fathers and contrary to all the
Sacred Canons enacted by the Oecumenical and local synods. We wonder if some Oecumenical
synod has been assembled and has abolished the Canons which forbid joint prayer
with heretics, [1] or if the Pope has repented and renounced the heresies of the
Filioque, of primacy, of infallibility, of unleavened bread, of the purifying
fire [purgatory—trans.], of created grace, of the immaculate conception
of the Most Holy Theotokos, and many others, most of which have been condemned and
anathematized repeatedly by Orthodox synods and by the entirety of the Holy Fathers.
[2]

Heaven was angered and the Holy Fathers exceedingly saddened by seeing and hearing
all that took place at the Phanar at the feast of the Holy Apostle Andrew on the
30th of November of the current year—unprecedented and unheard of things
in the two thousand year history of the Church: “The dogmas of the Fathers are held
in contempt, the Apostolic traditions are disdained, the churches are subject to
the novelties of innovators,” [3] as St. Basil the Great says, regarding the events
of his own times.

Everything happened literally upside-down. Instead of the heretical Pope being placed
below, as we see the heretics depicted in the icons of the Holy Synods, and being
dismissed from the Divine Liturgy, on the basis of the liturgical command, “the
doors, the doors, in wisdom let us attend,” we elevated him to a high throne, where
he sat wearing an omophorion; the Orthodox deacons censed him; the Patriarch
exchanged the kiss [of peace] with him at “let us love one another;” as the proestos
[the one presiding—trans.] he proclaimed the “Our Father;” the choir of
sacred cantors chanted “Many Years” to him, as well as a specially composed troparion
from an Athonite hymnographer—Lord, have mercy!—if, of course, the news reports
are true; he was [also] permitted to give the congregation his blessing [evlogia],
or, rather, his folly [alogia] according to the Sacred Canons. [4]

We allowed the Church militant on earth to be divided from the Church triumphant
of the Saints in heaven, and to be united with churches and assemblies of the cunning
heretics.We insulted all of the holy Martyrs and Confessors who struggled to the
point of blood against the heresies, because we presented their struggles, their
martyrdoms and their confessions as to no avail and unnecessary. Will not the blessed
Hagiorite Fathers martyred under [Oecumenical Patriarch John] Vekkou, who refused
to accept and to commemorate the Pope, lament, seeing that not only do we reject
their example by our silence, but actually do the opposite? Why then did these and
all of the previous Martyrs undergo martyrdom, and why did the Confessors stand
fast in their profession of the Faith?

You know, Reverend Fathers, better than we do, the anti-Orthodox and blasphemous
actions, declarations, and decisions of the Oecumenical Patriarch, and of the other
Primates and Bishops who vociferously and visibly advocate—bare-headed [5]—the acceptance
and teaching of the chief heresy of Ecumenism, the greatest ecclesiological heresy
of all the ages. This heretical teaching disavows the uniqueness of the One, Holy,
Catholic, and Apostolic Church and equates it with the heresies, by accepting their
sacraments as having and imparting sanctifying and saving grace. Besides recognition of the baptism of the followers of the Pope and of the Lutherans,
we also have participation in the chalice with Monophysites, and in many cases with
Papists in the Cyclades and in the Diaspora.

We take stock with much greater sadness that over the last few years the spiritual
leadership of the Holy Mountain has not confronted these manifestations of apostasy
with fortitude and the courage of confession, as did earlier Athonite Fathers. The
Patriarch has gauged our responses, and because they are half-hearted, and many
times non-existent, he proceeds without hindrance toward union with an unrepentant
Pope, who remains enmeshed in heresies. He evaluated us and rejoiced greatly during
his last visit to the Holy Mountain, as well, such that one would say that he came
in order to take the consent and blessing of the Athonites for all that he had planned
to do with the Pope a few days later.

We, lowly hieromonks and monks, confess to you that we have been scandalized by
the silence and inaction of our spiritual leaders on Mount Athos, and together with
us, the entire assembly of monastic-loving Orthodox Christians, both in Greece and
throughout the world. They are all waiting to hear the voice of Mount Athos.

From you, the wiser and more erudite, we learned that when the Faith is endangered
we are all held accountable if we are silent and shrink back, as St. Theodore the
Studite says. [6] A monk, in particular, must not allow the slightest innovation
in matters of the Faith, according to the [aforementioned] Holy Father and great
monastic leader, organizer of monastic life, and the Elder of us all. [7] He did
not fear the threats and the persecutions of the iconoclast emperors and patriarchs,
but within Constantinople, within the enclosure of the Great Sacred Monastery of
Stoudion, he organized a procession with a thousand torch-bearing monks, who held
the forbidden Holy Icons in their hands.

Saints Sabbas the Sanctified and Theodosios the Cenobite, likewise great monastic
leaders, assembled ten thousand monks of Palestine long before in Jerusalem, and
saved Orthodoxy from the heresy of Monothelitism.

Who will now save the Church from the most terrible heresy of Ecumenism and the
deceit of Papism? The letters of protest, which the Holy Community [of Mount Athos]
has sent at various times to the Oecumenical Patriarch, have not had any effect.
It is no longer time for words, but for actions. We do not want to teach you, we
the unlearned and wretched sinners, neither do we want to have ourselves appear
as Confessors. Rather, we want to set at ease our monastic and Orthodox conscience;
we want to honor and follow the conduct of the Holy Martyrs and Confessors, particularly
those martyred under Vekkou. We do not want to shrink back, nor to place the monasteries
and our brotherhoods above the purity of the Faith, above God and the Truth. [8]

We believe that after so many written and oral protests and objections, back-peddling
[i.e., going back on one’s word—trans.], retreats and compromises,
the only thing that will gladden the Orthodox and shame the kakodox is
to cease commemoration of the patriarch and of all the bishops agreeing with him
or remaining in silence.

Gather together, Holy Fathers, the monks of the coenobium, the sketes and the kellia
into an all-monastic, fighting assembly—either within or outside of the Holy Mountain—and
topple the towers of heresy, of Papism and of Ecumenism. Take up the good fight
of the Faith. If you fail to act, we will prefer to do that which is God-pleasing,
not man-appeasing.

May God enlighten all of us; may the Most Holy Theotokos shelter and bless her Garden;
and may They protect the Orthodox Church from defamers of the Theotokos, and from
heretics who fight against the Saints, as well as from faint-hearted pastors who
leave the flock unprotected from attacks of the wolves. [9]

Asking your prayers for all the foregoing, we, the undersigned, remain respectfully
yours,

Hieromonk Ephraim, former abbot [of Philotheou], Elder of the Skete of Apostle Andrew
[“Serrai”, of the Holy Monastery of Vatopedi] and the brotherhood with me.
Elder Eustratios, Hieromonk, Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Elder Poimen, Hieromonk, Holy Monastery of Zographou
Elder Basileios, Hieromonk, Holy Monastery of Zographou
Elder Bessarion, Hieromonk, Holy Monastery of Zographou
Monk Nikodemos (Bilalis), Sacred Cell “of the Presentation” from Kapsala
Monk Artemios, Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Priestmonk Hilarion, Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Monk Paisios, Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Monk Savvas, Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Hierodeacon Chariton, Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Monk Chariton, Karoulia, Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Monk Athanasios, Karoulia, Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Elder Vlasios, Monk, Kserokalyvo Viglas, Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Monk Akakios, Sacred Kathisma of the Holy Trinity (Kyr Isaiah) Holy Monastery
of the Great Lavra
Elder Isaiah, Monk, Kellion of the Birth of the Mother of God, Holy Monastery of
the Great Lavra
Monk Cherubim, Sacred place of the Archangels, Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Hieromonk Damaskinos, Kellion of Holy Trinity at Karyes, Holy Monastery of the Great
Lavra
Elder Nektarios, Monk, Kellion of Holy Trinity at Karyes, Holy Monastery of the
Great Lavra
Elder Theoklitos, Monk and the fathers with him; Kellion of the Sacred Forerunner,St.Anne’s
Skete, Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Hieromonk Gabriel, Sacred Kellion of St. George(Kartsounaion) Sacred Skete of St.
Anne, Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Hieromonk Chrysostomos Kartsonas, Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Elder Kosmas Monk,Sacred Hut of St. Demetrios, Skete of Saint Anne, Holy Monastery
of the Great Lavra
Elder Panteleimon, Monk, Sacred Kellion of St. Panteleimon, Sacred Skete of Holy
Trinity, Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Elder Sophronios, Monk, Sacred Hut of Entrance of the Theotokos, Sacred Skete of
Holy Trinity, Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Monk Parthenios, Sacred Hut Entrance of Theotokos, Sacred Skete of Holy Trinity,
Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Monk Athanasios at Vouleutiria, Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Elder Serapheim, Hieromonk, Kellion of All Saints, Skete of Saint Anne, Holy Monastery
of the Great Lavra
Elder Daniel, Monk, Saint Anne’s, Holy Monastery of the Great Lavra
Elder Gerasimos, Monk Sacred Hut of St. George, Katounakia, Holy Monastery of the
Great Lavra
Elder Benediktos, Hieromonk, Kellion of Ss Konstantine and Eleni, Holy Monastery
of Vatopedi
Monk Paisios, Kellion of Archangels (Savvaion) Karyes, Holy Monastery of Hilandar
Monk Silouanos, Sacred Hut of St. Nicholas, Nea Skete, Holy Monastery of St. Paul
Monk Gabriel, Kellion of Koutloumousiou of Saint Christodoulos
Monk Dositheos, Koutloumousiou Monastery Kathisma
Elder Nektarios, Monk, Sacred Hut of Holy Trinity, Skete of the Holy Monastery of
Koutloumousiou
Monk Paisios, Kellion of Saint Barbara, Holy Monastery of Koutloumousiou
Elder Moses, Monk, Kellion St. John Chrysostomos, Skete of St. Panteleimonos, Holy
Monastery of Koutloumousiou
Elder Abraaham, Hieromonk, Sacred Hut of St Gerasimos Kefalinias, Skete of St. Panteleimonos,
Holy Monastery of Koutloumousiou
Elder Spyridon, Monk, Kellion of St. Nicholas, Holy Monastery of Koutloumousiou
Monk Theodoulos, formerly of the Holy Monastery of Koutloumousiou
Elder Chrysostom, Hieromonk, Kellion of St. Spyridon of Kerkyra, Holy Monastery
of Koutloumousiou
Monk Hilarion, Sacred Kathisma of the Holy Monastery of Doheiariou (Platon area)
Elder Nikodemos, Monk, Kellion of St. Nektarios Kapsala, Holy Monastery of Pantokratoros
Hieromonk Gabriel, Kellion of Quick to Hear Mother of God, Holy Monastery of Pantokratoros
Monk Isaac, Kellion of Birth of Mother of God, Kapsala, Holy Monastery of Pantokratoros
Elder Athanasios, Monk, Kellion of St . Athanasios, Holy Monastery of Pantokratoros
Elder Meletios, Monk, Birth of Theotokos, Kapsala, Holy Monastery of Pantokratoros
Elder Gregory, Monk Kellion of St. Nicholas, Kapsala, Holy Monastery of Pantokratoros
Elder Onoufrios, Monk, Kellion Dormition of Theotokos, Karyes
Elder Nicholas, Monk, Kellion of St. Demetrios, Karyes
Hieromonk Gabriel, Kellion of Holy Archangels (Kombologas) KaryesThe collection of names continues.

Endnotes

See, as examples, Canon XLV (45) of the Holy Apostles: “Let any Bishop, of Presbyter,
or Deacon that merely joins in prayer with heretics be suspended, but if he has
permitted them to perform any service as Clergymen, let him be deposed [from office].”
And, Canon VI (6) of the Synod of Laodicea: “Concerning the necessity of not permitting
heretics to come into the house of God, so long as they persist in their heresy.”
OCIC Ed.: See also this
collection of Canons related to ecumenism.

See, among many others: Saint Meletios of Galisiotou, Third Oration, Against the
Latins, in V. Laurent-L. Darryzes, Dossier Grex de l’ Union de Lyon (1272-1277)
Paris 1976, page 554:

“The Latins have erred greatly and many times
the whole choir of Fathers do condemn them,
he who communes with the Latins is grouped
with heretics and separated from Christ and the Saints.”

Saint Mark of Ephesus, Encyclical Letter, in I. Karamiri, The Dogmatic and Symbolic
Books [In Greek], Vol. 1, pg. 425: “We have turned away from them as from
heretics and for this reason we have separated from them. For what else? The rules
of piety are clear: he who even in the slightest deviates from right faith is a
heretic and subject to the laws set against heretics ...Thus, they are heretics
and as heretics we cut them off.”

The Synod in Constantinople of 1848: “The Lord has seen fit to allow for heresies
to spread to the greater part of the inhabited world, as with Arianism at one time,
so, too, today with Papism.” OCIC Ed.: See also the Patriarchal Encyclicals
of 1848 and
1895.

Letter 90, To the Most Holy Brethren and Bishops found in the West, 2,
PG 32, 473 [In Greek].

Canon XXXII (32) of Synod of Laodicea: “That one must not accept blessings of heretics,
which are rather folly [also could be translated as ‘to one’s ruin’] rather than
blessings.”

Letter 71, to Pantoleonti Logotheti, PG 99, 1321: “The Commandment of the Lord is
not to remain silent in times when the faith is in danger. ‘Speak, he said, and
do not remain silent.’” And, “if any man draw back, my soul shall have
no pleasure in him” (Heb. 10:38).And, “if these should hold their peace, the
stones would immediately cry out” (Lk. 19:40). Thus, when it is a matter
of faith, one should not say: ‘Who am I, a priest or a leader of the people?’ In
no case should one remain silent.”

Letter 79, to Abbot Theophilos, PG 99, 1049. “If there are any monks in our day,
they will be proved by their works. The work of a monk is to not tolerate any innovations
whatsoever as pertains to the Gospel, that they not become examples to laymen as
proposing heresy and communion with heretics, for they will give account for their
[the laity’s] loss [of salvation].”

Theodore Studite, To Monastics, PG 99, 1120. “Do we prefer the monasteries
more than God and happiness here more than hardship for the sake of the good? Where
is, “I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed”?
Where is, “Lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest”? Where are the
glory and the power of our monastic order? Do you recall how the Blessed Sabbas
and Theodosios, when Anastasios the impious emperor decided to turn against the
Orthodox, rose up fervently fighting for the faith, on the one hand anathematizing
the kakodox in the Church, on the other hand, with the letters they wrote
saying to the king that they prefer death rather than to change that which they
had received?”

Jn. 10: 11-12: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for
the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep
are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf
catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.”

Posted 2/7/2007. The subtitle (“Kelliotes Letter”) was added by the Webmaster.